To be killed or to be canceled? To be physically destroyed or metaphysically erased for daring to fight back, that is the question.
The war on Israel is found in many spheres and manifestations. It goes far beyond the savage invasion and massacre by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza on October 7; the thousands of rockets from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and directly from terrorist-sponsor Iran; the international lawfare, carried out through NGOs and UN bodies; and attacks in cyberspace.
In a world in which “the cancel culture” thrives, Israelis are being made to disappear.
So much for Jews controlling Hollywood.
Israeli actress Shira Haas, best known for her roles in the TV series Shtisel and Unorthodox, will appear in Marvel’s planned blockbuster film Captain America: A Brave New World. She plays Sabra, a character who first appeared in a 1980 comic book edition of The Incredible Hulk.
As Keren David noted in an opinion piece in The Jewish Chronicle this week, “Marvel’s Sabra, real name Ruth Ben Seraph, was born near Jerusalem and was brought up on a special kibbutz run by the Israeli government, and worked for the Tel Aviv police. Ruth – nicknamed Sabra – was the first superhuman agent created to serve the Mossad. She wore a blue and white costume. Everything about her was Jewish and Israeli.”
But that was then. The movie trailer indicates that Haas’s character has undergone an anti-Israeli assassination.
As plots go, it’s twisted in more than one sense. “Sabra” is a word used for a native Israeli, named for the cactus fruit, prickly outside but sweet inside. But, as David pointed out, this character “doesn’t work for Mossad and doesn’t seem to be Israeli at all. Instead, she is a former Russian operative, now working for the American government.”
This is not an entirely new phenomenon.
“Back in 2022, they waffled on about times changing and characters like Sabra needing a ‘new approach,’” David wrote.
“...Now, the most interesting thing about this is the shallow grasp that Marvel seems to have over current affairs. Israel is out – but Russia is in? But then Sabra is a turncoat Russian, now working for the Americans...“In the world of identity politics, Marvel is expecting kudos from its decision to cast a Black actor as Captain America. Anthony Mackie waited a long time for this opportunity. How long will Shira Haas have to wait to be allowed to play Sabra as she was first imagined? In the brave new world of 2024, I can’t see it ever happening at all,” opined David.
Western double standards are extraordinary.
Jews are being canceled
Diversity is celebrated on the one hand and canceled on the other – when it comes to Jews.
It’s hard to have an Israeli superhero on the silver screen when outside theaters people are parading with Palestinian flags and screaming menacing demands for Israel’s demise.
FICTION AND the real world have clashed before. In 2017, Wonder Woman was banned from Lebanese cinemas for the sin of starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the powerful female superhero.
So much for artistic freedom of expression, so much for the arts bringing people together, so much for freedom from discrimination.
Gadot, a genuine Sabra, who remains defiantly proud of her country in its hour of need, reportedly lost one million followers on social media after expressing support for Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant, Eden Golan, in May.
Golan was unable to leave her hotel in Malmo, Sweden, except in elaborate disguise, due to the dangers.
Her song “Hurricane” was a tribute to the victims of October 7, although it was not allowed to mention the massacre explicitly.
It came in fifth place overall. The placing reflects the results of the public voting – which is anonymous.
The national juries didn’t have the courage to grant Israel the coveted “douze points” (12 points, the top possible mark). It’s a culture war.
Movie festivals and other cultural events have come under attack – or have been literally canceled, like the PEN America literary awards – for including Israelis or their supporters, or not condemning Israel enough.
Only one voice is allowed to be heard – the voice of the Palestinians, who have turned the barbarous October 7 attack into the story of their suffering.
It’s the same perverse thinking that drove people to rip down posters of those kidnapped from Israel and being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Gone are the glory days of Israel being acknowledged as the David facing Goliath, when cultural icons such as Danny Kaye and Leonard Cohen came to support Israel and the Jewish people at war.
Security risks at the Paris Olympics
Security will be high for all at the Paris Olympics, which start at the end of the month, but no delegation faces the same risks as the Israeli one. The 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics, perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists, resulted in the murder of 11 Israeli team members and a German police officer.
Various media reports suggest that the location and timing of the memorial ceremony is a strictly guarded secret at this stage because of the security threats.
It’s obscene. Israel cannot even safely mourn its victims of terror because the supporters of the murderous terrorist organizations have so hijacked the narrative.
There is also a war of written words.
Jewish authors worldwide feel under attack simply for their religion and ethnicity.
Amy Klein noted in The Jerusalem Post last month that a pro-Palestinian blacklist had left “many Jewish authors feeling shut out of publishing, worried about getting book contracts, attending literary events, or having their books review-bombed negatively on Goodreads – all for either having Jewish characters or Israel in their books, expressing support for Israel, or simply being Jewish.”
Many of these victims of antisemitism – because there is no other word for it but antisemitism – have grouped together on Facebook and elsewhere to provide mutual support as the boycott movement spreads its ugly wings and its lies across the world.
The erasing of Israel is not restricted to the world of arts and entertainment. Dror Marmor in Globes this week pointed out an interesting missing link in hi-tech news: Israel.
The buzz in the international media concerning the reputed mega-deal by Google to purchase cybersecurity company Wiz has ignored or played down the Israeli connection.
“In June 2013, The Wall Street Journal published a major article about Google’s intriguing ‘acquisition of Israeli traffic navigation app Waze.’ Israel was quite literally on the map.
Israel’s creativity and entrepreneurship that had already featured extensively in dozens of articles describing the unique ecosystem of the ‘Start-Up Nation’ was an integral part of the media coverage of the deal,” Marmor wrote.
“Now, 11 years later, the same newspaper has revealed a far bigger deal in the making from Google – the acquisition of Wiz for $23 billion. Only this time, Israel is conspicuous by its absence from the report.”
This trend is a disturbing double attack on Israel’s sovereignty and legitimacy, either unintentionally or through a deliberate attempt to avoid saying something positive about the Jewish state.
It’s easier to avoid criticism from BDS supporters and their idiotic fellow travelers.
One thing is certain: The call to “boycott, sanction, and divest” from Israel has nothing to do with peaceful coexistence or human rights.
Focusing on baseless claims of “apartheid” and “genocide” is a way of turning the tables on the Jews, accusing them of the very crimes of which they themselves are the victims. October 7 was an act of genocide – against the Jews.
My answer, as always, is to counter the boycott with a “buy-cott,” favoring blue-and-white products; openly and proudly supporting Israel; and backing those true friends who stand with Israel, including people like journalists Douglas Murray and Brendan O’Neill, and military expert Col. Richard Kemp.
Nearly nuclear Iran still threatens to eliminate Israel, but in the immortal words of basketball player Tal Brody, after beating the Russian Red Army Team CSKA in 1977: “We are on the map! And we are staying on the map – not only in sports but in everything.”
Israel’s history didn’t start with the birth of the modern state in 1948 but millennia ago. BDS supporters would like to rewrite the Bible, or at least make sure certain promises are lost in translation from the original Hebrew.
But in real life, as in the movies, if the curtain falls on Jewish and Israeli characters, everyone will be left in the dark.